Once again OSM reigns supreme. Not the first time, not the last.
this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2026
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I'm doing my part
Not if you use public transport extensively. Its also pretty shit for bike routes.
I use Transit for public transit, and I find the bike routes here in Amsterdam are better on CoMaps than on Google. Google Maps is notoriously crap for bikes in Europe
Transit uses OSM for foot and bike routing. Just wish they'd drop google as the basemap.
Which apps do you use use? What exactly is crap about biking? What general area or country (so I can have a look to see if it is a data issue)?
Organic Maps. I'm in Berlin, Germany.
Huh, ok! Good app in a place that should be in very good mapping condition. If you have a specific example, I can investigate. Also, you could look if there's some local OpenStreetMap meetups. They are likely to be happy to help you out in person.
https://www.404media.co/google-maps-lake-america-lake-ontario-name-change/ more about this for those that live under a rock
It was unclear in the days immediately following the order whether Google would respect the name change. MapQuest, the 1996 navigation service that still exists but most people stopped using in the early 2000s as Google Maps took over, went viral last week after posting a screenshot of Lake Ontario on X, saying "We're not changing it." MapQuest also launched a "Rename Lake Ontario" web toy.
based
Google follows the U.S. Geographic Names Information System (GNIS), which formally changed the name for 'Lake Ontario' to 'Lake America' in the United States, according to Google's announcement about the change, posted Saturday: "Since we update Google Maps to reflect name changes in official government sources, which is GNIS for the U.S., people using Maps in the U.S. will see 'Lake America,' those in Canada will continue to see 'Lake Ontario,' and those outside of the U.S. and Canada will see both names. These updates follow our long-standing policy for bodies of water with names that vary from country to country, and are starting to roll out now."
https://www.openstreetmap.org/
If you have any questions about how you can help or how to use OpenStreetMap, I'm ready and willing answer even your dumbest questions.
Yes, promote OSM. We need more help with this. Crowd-sourced cartography.
Thank you. Do you have favorite android apps? If so, which? What's the easiest way to contribute local info?
For using OSM on Android:
- I use OsmAnd, which is free on F-Droid. It's very feature-rich, and I can customize it pretty much exactly how I like. There's a good tutorial for beginners here.
- However, some people prefer the simplicity of the app CoMaps, which is available for Android and iOS. It's a fork of Organic Maps that arose over disagreements with Organic's governance (see: open letter).
- There are also specialty apps like Alpi Maps for more specialized uses of OSM (in Alpi Maps' case, hiking).
For contributing to OSM on Android:
- I use Vespucci for more complex edits on Android, so things like adding features. (The rough iOS equivalent is Go Map!!.)
- I use StreetComplete for a more trimmed-down, gamified experience. It isn't a power user experience like Vespucci, but it's often really useful if you're just on the go and want to make small but meaningful contributions.
The easiest way I've found to contribute local information is the iD editor on desktop; it's the one that pops up if you click 'Edit' on OpenStreetMap.org. It strikes a good balance between user-friendliness and power user stuff. For full-on power users, JOSM is a good option. And the easiest way to contribute in a limited way is StreetComplete, which will ask you questions about existing features (like "does this traffic signal have a walk button for pedestrians?")
Edit: I linked to but forgot to specifically mention the OpenStreetMap Wiki, which is a great general resource.
The easiest way to contribute is to upload the traces. They are used for people to map the roads and paths. And you can contribute with OSMAnd by adding POIs and upload them, and saving the traces (you can do more stuff in osmand but it's not the best app for those edits).
GPS traces can situationally be very useful, and I'm glad you acknowledged them, but I don't agree on blanket calling them the easiest way to contribute. Normally, that's through iD on desktop or StreetComplete's quests on mobile.
GPS traces can work well in situations where aerial imagery isn't up-to-date with roads and sidewalks. Likewise (provided you can get an accurate trace) it can also work well for areas with e.g. a bunch of tree cover, etc. And it works well if your area is especially undermapped and lacks many roads/paths and you were already planning on traveling those roads/paths anyway.
But there are plenty of places where the roads, sidewalks, bike paths, trails, etc. are already mapped out with a good degree of precision and traces made with a smartphone GPS aren't really going to do anything on their own.
GPS traces can work well in situations where aerial imagery isn’t up-to-date with roads and sidewalks. ...
traces made with a smartphone GPS aren’t really going to do anything on their own.
Imagery and GPS traces are the way to map. Aerial imagery suffers from offset, and the GPS traces suffer of signal interference (bumping on objects). To map correctly you need both, not just one.
You don't even need to use a smartphone, you can use your bike head unit. And the GPS now are multiband/frequency and multi constellation. This increases the accuracy by a lot - just don't expect cheap chinese phones to have this.
Traces are the best way to contribute, because combined multiple traces on the same path are a very good indication of a path (and it's exact location) and it doesn't require extra work. Just put your device to save your movement and you don't need to do anything else besides upload it after you finish - You don't need to osm and learn how to use iD or josm or any other app. You don't even need to learn the tags. Just save and upload
I also like to use Every Door for businesses, buildings, and small points of interest.
DeGoogle and deAmerican.
Canada should announce that they've changed the names of all the Great Lakes to Canadian names, like Lake Toronto, and Lake Ottawa. Make sure there's a Lake Saskatchewan, because there is no way Trump can read or pronounce it, so that will really piss him off. Maybe he'll painfully stroke out and croak, and we can all read about it the Big Beautiful Obituary.
The only one to change would be Michigan. The rest honour the Huron and Erie tribes, for instance, and Canada owes a lot of its success at defeating American invaders in 1812 to the then-cooperation of various tribes.
Michiganders have done no wrong.
Their policy is that they show the names used in your country. This isn't news, but always has been like that.
Those aren't the names used in this country, we still use Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. These are MAGA names, not American names, and MAGAs aren't Americans.
Sure. But they also comply with Chinese official stances in china. They show the official, not the actual names.
99% of people still call the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario by their proper names, so this is merely complying for the sake of compliance.
So change the policy.
Or at least drag your feet a little to not look like boot-licking fascist scumbags.
Yep. I get they're following the policy they set up, which worked fine with rational countries, but they change other policies all the time, so why not here? Just keep it as Ontario, but with an asterisk, since he has a lot of asterisks by his name now.
They also do this with china etc.
Why?
What else would the policy be? Most lake names are in the countries native language, so it’s translated to English for us, but it’s not the actual lake names.
Openstreetmap uses on the ground policy - if you want to change the name of something you need to change the local signposts, which New York state won't be doing in this case
Well, when is a name officially changed? Just now only the U.S. federal government entities must use The name "Lake America". Nobody else has to.
Just checked. Yup.
For fuck's sake.
Report the error.
Daily.
Interestingly, the Canadian version of the app still shows me Lake Ontario
Only shows if you're on USA
PS: Google Maps show a different map/names depending on the country you're in, e.g. in China Taiwan doesn't exist
So not only are they sycophants, they're pussies.
Still lake Ontario on mine.
Had to go check though I've moved over to Here.
Edit: that was yesterday. Just checked and it is indeed America now.
What the actually duck.
Wish i could rely on alternatives like OSM. But every time i try its horrendously bad. Search is near useless. Dont have an exact address? That sucks you won't find anything. Directions are basic, roads that no longer exist are used, and ofc it can't take current traffic into account.
This is all in Seattle, WA so it's not lile its a density problem. I have learning disabilities that specifically make navigation in unfamiliar areas nearly impossible for me. I need my GPS to be reliable, while Google does occasionally do something stupid OSM does it every single time i open the app.
Which is a shame because its way nicer looking and uses less memory/cpu then google maps, stays snappy and has some cool extra features. But i need to be able to search abstract concepts like grocery, restaurant, ramen, hardware store and have it actually find locations. Hell even if i search a specific name like Safeway it usually cant find it. Needing an exact address only makes a map worthless.
There are many OSM apps, results may vary a lot. For search and adresses, Magic Earth might be your best choice. They also integrate some open data sources to improve address search, and there's some live traffic data. Of course, if the road data is simply wrong, there's little to be done about that. But some fixes are easy enough to do yourself without previous experience, or you can just drop a map Note on OpenStreetMap.org describing the issue and someone will fix it for you. OpenStreetMap in the US doesn't have the same level of detail as in Europe, but it is evolving quickly. So even if it is not perfect now, don't give up on it forever.
Yeah search is definitely lacking I noticed as well. You need to give a specific address then it finds it. I would guess at least partly it's because they don't track you. Also some apps built on OSM are better than others for this.
I'm also annoyed that countries' borders are not obvious in OSM as the name of the country is not emphasized well enough and the outlines sort of blend together, there's also too many cities displayed. I have found this also to be the case in Cartes and Facilmap
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